Although the grand tradition of Sunday night as Curry Night (yes, we are all about themed dinners!) generally means 'normal' curry, H and I recently decided to mix it up and make a pie. H has a soft spot for pies and I had been promising to make it for ages and that Sunday night just seemed perfect.
I have to thank my Mum for this recipe, as she gave many, many hints on the process and also gave me the curry recipe from an old school book at home. And also my Dad for sending us through some pie tips from Entice magazine which helped make the pie nice and brown.
Anyway, back to the pie! I started by making the curry:
1kg of chicken (I used breast)
2 large onions (I'm a fan of spanish onions personally)
1 inch of ginger
1 tsp of cumin
Chilli to taste
2 cloves of garlic
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cardamom pods (make sure you crush them before you add them or they wont add any flavour)
6 curry leaves
6 whole cloves
2 dessertspoons of curry powder
3 cups of chicken stock
1 can of coconut milk (add it in bits in case you want a more/less mild flavour)
Salt
Lemon juice
Arrowroot (tapioca flour is basically the same thing)
2 pieces puff pastry
1. Slice the chicken nice and small, you don't want the pie to be full of big chunks. Also slice the onion nice and small.
2. Heat some oil an add the chicken, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, chilli and cardamom pods. Once browned add the onions, curry leaves, garlic and ginger and cook until onions are soft.
3. Add the curry powder and the stock. Bring to the boil then simmer until the chicken is tender.
4. Add the coconut milk, then the lemon juice and salt to taste.
5. Once its mixed in, add the arrowroot to make it nice and thick. Add little bits at a time as you don't want it to be too thick and clumpy. Let it cool for a bit before you add it to the pastry.
Once the curry is ready to go, its time to make the pie! Heat the oven (I have fan forced and put it at 200 degrees celsius) and grease your pie tin (mine was about the size of a normal round cake tin). Let the pastry thaw out a bit (not too much!) and cut the corners off. Put one piece on the bottom of the tin. Use the corners to bring the edge of the pastry up and over the tin. Then add the curry but make sure not to overfill. The take the other piece of pastry and place it on top (again with corners off). You will need to almost twist the edges of the pastry so that they join onto the side part of the pastry. If its not joined perfectly your pie will leak. It will look a bit like this:
Now H decided that he would help by adding some dried coriander to the top. Not sure whether it helped the flavour or not! Once the pie is assembled, put a one inch slit in the top of the pie to let the air out. If you want a nice brown pie, brush the top with milk. I used soy milk and that was fine. Put your pie in the oven and cook. It takes between 40-45 minutes, but make sure you keep an eye on it, as burnt pie is no one's friend! And then:
And then you can slice and eat!
We had some left over pastry and were craving dessert. So I mixed a can of apricots, sugar, vanilla essence and desiccated coconut and made a mini danish:
I just took one piece of pastry, cut it in half and then made little cases as such. The photos are a bit rubbish as copious amounts of wine had been consumed by this point.
After about 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees we had ourselves some little apricot desserts! It was quite a cold night, and definitely the kind in which you would like to have a dessert. You could replace the apricot with apples or another similar fruit. Or leave out the coconut. But keep the sugar, you absolutely need the sugar.
Hopefully there are not too many cold nights this winter as pies such as this will force me into early morning gym sessions and its far too cold for that!
I have to thank my Mum for this recipe, as she gave many, many hints on the process and also gave me the curry recipe from an old school book at home. And also my Dad for sending us through some pie tips from Entice magazine which helped make the pie nice and brown.
Anyway, back to the pie! I started by making the curry:
1kg of chicken (I used breast)
2 large onions (I'm a fan of spanish onions personally)
1 inch of ginger
1 tsp of cumin
Chilli to taste
2 cloves of garlic
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cardamom pods (make sure you crush them before you add them or they wont add any flavour)
6 curry leaves
6 whole cloves
2 dessertspoons of curry powder
3 cups of chicken stock
1 can of coconut milk (add it in bits in case you want a more/less mild flavour)
Salt
Lemon juice
Arrowroot (tapioca flour is basically the same thing)
2 pieces puff pastry
1. Slice the chicken nice and small, you don't want the pie to be full of big chunks. Also slice the onion nice and small.
2. Heat some oil an add the chicken, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, chilli and cardamom pods. Once browned add the onions, curry leaves, garlic and ginger and cook until onions are soft.
3. Add the curry powder and the stock. Bring to the boil then simmer until the chicken is tender.
4. Add the coconut milk, then the lemon juice and salt to taste.
5. Once its mixed in, add the arrowroot to make it nice and thick. Add little bits at a time as you don't want it to be too thick and clumpy. Let it cool for a bit before you add it to the pastry.
 |
| Chicken Curry! You will see I added some peas, any veg will be delish. |
Now H decided that he would help by adding some dried coriander to the top. Not sure whether it helped the flavour or not! Once the pie is assembled, put a one inch slit in the top of the pie to let the air out. If you want a nice brown pie, brush the top with milk. I used soy milk and that was fine. Put your pie in the oven and cook. It takes between 40-45 minutes, but make sure you keep an eye on it, as burnt pie is no one's friend! And then:
 |
| We got a little distracted by the television and it prob cooked a bit too much! |
We had some left over pastry and were craving dessert. So I mixed a can of apricots, sugar, vanilla essence and desiccated coconut and made a mini danish:
After about 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees we had ourselves some little apricot desserts! It was quite a cold night, and definitely the kind in which you would like to have a dessert. You could replace the apricot with apples or another similar fruit. Or leave out the coconut. But keep the sugar, you absolutely need the sugar.
Hopefully there are not too many cold nights this winter as pies such as this will force me into early morning gym sessions and its far too cold for that!
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